. =: {.o:. "' \ ;?:: ;.: . ',' h ' . : "Y- .::1 , ! f :'.: , " ',",d h'[, . me, "and the main thing is to steer Israel in the direction of a mutual-deterrence policy, because he does not really believe in real peace. He does not believe in a new quality of relations. He also sees everything through the eyes of a politi- cal animal and he wants to be reëlected. Everything he does is to play to his right-wing constituency. To appeal to them, he uses the buzzwords that ap- peal to their ghetto mentality." There are still many on the left who blame Netanyahu for helping to whip up an atmosphere of hatred that led to the Rabin assassination. Nevertheless, Bar-Illan insists that one day soon all Israelis will end up marvelling at Ne- tanyahu's guile and ideological agil- ity. "Bibi wants to out-Begin Begin," Bar- Illan told me, meaning that he will do something even more shock- ing than Menachem Begin did when he signed the Camp David accords, in 1978, promising to give the Sinai back to Egypt and bringing about peace between Israel and its most powerful neighbor. Israel is celebrating its fiftieth year as a state It is amazing to realize that Zionism has outlasted the two great ;, "':I- ;: .1'i .' :: -:. . ;.. -:, .: :'. - .,:..:" :,' ,., !. '.:, ,:: .: . . . :..:-=- -...s( . ',; i, "'...'-. ,)t" ,,,", , .....;- .- ""<'. . --. :.........:. '} ,;., ' . : : :-::."... .. ;- . -. '\;. ;.:!: ,'::: Ii fÞ". ;.';;. " threats of the twentieth century-Fas- cism and Communism-and yet the celebration is halfhearted. No small part of this is the sense that the country's leadership is thorougWy uninspired. Al- most universally, left and right, N e- tanyahu is seen as a slippery pol-and not particularly adept at that. During the 1996 campaign, Bibi promised the Orthodox that he, the most secular of men, would be the avatar of the Jewish state. He went to see the spiritual leader of the Sephardim, Rabbi Yitzhak Ka- duri, and whispered in the rabbi's ear, "Leftists have forgotten what it is to be Jewish. They think they will put security in the hands of the Arabs-that Arabs will look out for us." Israeli Radio's mi- crophone picked up these remarks. During his two years in office, Ne- tanyahu has become known for a series of flubs and fast ones. Mter winning the Likud nomination largely through a new, open electoral process, he sup- ported the repeal of that process. He courted scandal by nominating an attor- ney general whose main qualification was a tight connection to Shas, the Sephardic party He defied his own in- telligence chief and ordered the as- .-;.: ::: This page, clockwise from far left: The future Prime Minister and his father; Bibi, left, with his brother Jonathan who was killed in the 1976 raid at Entebbe; Netanyahu's parents, Benzion and Cela. Opposite page: Bibi and his wife, Sara. Their shaky marriage has been a source of amusement for Israeli newspapers. - :: ... Jo'-;.. ::.. ):- " ; : ,,': '. .(. . . - ;o .::: , ". ,,'-r. t:if ,;o,.-c,é:'Y''',. . .: ... -;:;:.i'..;.\:::-;:.-... ..:. . . ;.. sassination of a Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, in the Jordanian capital of Am- man; when the plot to poison Meshal failed miserably (more Inspector Clou- seau than 007) and became public, King Hussein was infuriated, and Israelis were bewildered. As Foreign Minister, David Levy said that he had a commit- ment from Netanyahu on social spend- ing in Sephardic towns, and then re- signed when Netanyahu reneged. The right wing remain furious about the re- deployment of Israeli forces from the city of Hebron, in the West Bank. Netanyahu's circle feels persecuted by the press. His defenders point out, for example, that he has not turned out to be militarily aggressive or ideologically unbending. Again and again, they men- tioned "one of the few exceptions" -a I- long article by Ari Shavit published last December in the liberal daily Ha'arefz, , headlined "THE YEAR OF HATING BIBI." (/) Shavit is a liberal intellectual who wrote ' that his own circle has been unduly vi- cious about Netanyahu. When I began reporting this story, Netanyahu's own father grufRy told me that I would in- variably quote only his son's enemies, 0 "the left-wingers." I invited him to give g